Daijiworld Media Network
London, July 31
Day 3 will be talked about for a very long time to come. First, the partnership between KP and Bell that put England on a firm platform. The decision by MS Dhoni to recall Ian Bell has set the precedent and it will be interesting as to how the world reacts. This partnership between Prior and Bresnan has put England in total command. The Indian bowlers have been bled dry today and they look totally spent. The question for England is when will they declare? Can India hang in there for the remaining two days?
Dravid:
"The guys discussed in the dressing room. The guys didn't feel right about it though he was actually out. Dhoni and Fletcher convened a meeting which Dhoni led, and there was a unanimous decision to ask him to come back again. Since it was Tea, we had the time to go back and discuss about it. There was unanimity in the team led by Dhoni that we had to uphold the spirit of cricket. These are unique incidents. In the West Indies, Laxman was out stumped when he was not moving out of the crease. We didn't like it then so it hurts when your team is at the receiving end. It has not been easy for the bowlers. Praveen and Ishant have been trying hard. For the 2nd time in the series we were down to 3 bowlers so it can happen. England bat deep so it was always a problem for us. Harbhajan has a stomach muscle injury. It is tough on the guys. We fought hard but we couldn't force the issue as the bowlers were really tired."
Bell:
"I really enjoyed it today. It usually swings a lot but the sun was out today. Lot of confusion (about the run out). It looked like it was a four and then Asad went up to the bowler probably signalling Tea. It was my fault as well as I was walking off before the ball was dead. I was technically out but it was fantastic from both teams and they have moved forward in the spirit of cricket. The captains and coaches got together in the Tea break. Duncan and Dhoni went back to their team and asked me to carry on. The right decision has been made. It was naive on my part to walk off. We still need as many runs as possible as the wicket is pretty good. They have a world class batting line up and hopefully our bowlers will take 10 wickets."
Scorecard:
England first innings: 221 all out
India first innings: 288 all out
England second innings:
Andrew Strauss c Dhoni b Sreesanth 16
Alastair Cook c Yuvraj Singh b Sharma 5
Ian Bell c Laxman b Yuvraj Singh 159
Kevin Pietersen c Dhoni b Sreesanth 63
Eoin Morgan c Dhoni b Kumar 70
Matt Prior batting 64
Jonathan Trott c Dravid b Kumar 2
Tim Bresnan batting 47
Extras: (b 9, lb 3, w 1, nb 2) 15
Total: (for six wickets in 101 overs) 441
Fall of wickets 1-6 (Cook, 3.4 overs), 2-57 (Strauss, 19.1), 3-219 (Pietersen, 55.2), 4-323 (Bell, 77.6), 5-329 (Morgan, 80.2), 6-339 (Trott, 82.4)
Bowling:
Praveen Kumar 29 5 93 2
Ishant Sharma 24 3 115 1
S. Sreesanth 22 5 103 2
Yuvraj Singh 10 0 41 1
Harbhajan Singh 9 1 47 0
Suresh Raina 7 0 30 0